Sewanee's Link in three NCAA events

Sewanee's Link in three NCAA events

March 6th, 2011by Staff Reports in Sports

Sewanee sophomore Phillip Link from Sewanee has qualified for three events in the NCAA Division III men's swimming and diving championships March 23-26 at the University of Tennessee's Allan Jones Aquatic Center. The NCAA announced qualifiers Friday, and Link made the field for the 100- and 200-yard men's breaststroke and the 200 individual medley. He was one of 13 Sewanee swimmers and divers who earned all-conference honors at the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference meet, and he is seeded 11th in the 200 breast after setting a school and SCAC record of 2:04.10. Link's second-place 56.69 in the 100 breast also was a school record. The Tigers set 13 school records at the conference meet in Texas.

Track & Field

GENEVA, Ohio - Bryan College junior Bryson Harper from Sequatchie County High School finished fifth Saturday in the men's 3,000-meter run at the NAIA Indoor Track and Field Championships, and Lee University's Anna Hrushka was sixth in the women's mile with a time of 5:01.81. Both earned All-American status. Harper, who was third at 8:31.5 in his semifinal section, turned in an 8:32:01 in the final, won by Shorter's Paul Chelimo in 8:28:31. Lee's Mike Walker was 20th in the preliminaries. Bryan senior Zach Buffington from Ooltewah set a school record of 15:05.4 in the 5,000-meter prelims but was 15th overall and did not qualify for the final, and Lions sophomore Jason McLeod had a personal best of 4:19.31 in the mile prelims, good for 12th place with Lee's Caleb Morgan 21st. Lee's Maggie Opelt was 19th in the women's 5k.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Signal Mountain resident and Red Bank High School coach Hugh Enicks finished third in his 51-55 age group Saturday in the 3,000-meter run at the USATF Masters Indoor Championships. His time was 10 minutes, 18 seconds.

Softball

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - The Chattanooga State softball team edged Temple (Texas) 2-1 in eight innings and opened Gold bracket play with a 4-2 defeat of Tallahassee in the NFCA Leadoff Classic on Saturday. Misha Aldridge struck out nine batters against Temple and got the second win in relief. London Germ and Laura Curtis had the RBIs against Temple, Curtis with a two-out single plating Chelsea Burgess, who began the eighth inning on second base and moved to third on Brittany Cooley's bunt. Curtis was 1-for-2 with three RBIs against Tallahassee, including a two-run double as the winning hit again, and Shelby Johnson, Germ and Cooley each was 2-for-4. Johnson had a triple. The Lady Tigers face Gulf Coast in a bracket semifinal at noon today; the final is set for 2 p.m.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team was washed out of two games Saturday at Georgia's Bulldog Invitational. The Lady Mocs, who lost 2-0 to Indiana on Friday, will face Campbell and the nationally top-ranked tournament host today as scheduled. Lee University's Southern States doubleheader at Brenau in Gainesville, Ga., also was rained out Saturday, as was Sewanee's two games at Talladega in Alabama.

Baseball

The third game of the SSAC baseball series between Emmanuel and Lee in Cleveland was postponed from Saturday until Monday at 4 p.m. on Olympic Field. Lee won 3-2 and 2-1 on Friday. In junior college play, Cleveland State's and Chattanooga State's series at Southwest Tennessee and Dyersburg State, respectively, were postponed until today and Monday.

The Tennessee Dizzy Dean banquet will be held Saturday at 7 p.m. at St. John United Methodist Church, just off highways 58 and 153, and YMCA chief executive officer Randy Brown will be the guest speaker. The event will include a courage award for Amanda Swartout, a former area youth softball player battling brain cancer. For more information call Bobby Dunn at 596-1353.

Tennis

The UTC women's tennis team defeated Western Carolina 6-1 in Southern Conference play Saturday at the Racquet Club in Hixson. It was the third straight victory for the Lady Mocs (5-4, 2-1), who got singles wins from Jenna Nurik, Emily Hangstefer, Shaina Singh, Annie Green and, by forfeit, Charlotte Bossy. The UTC men's team takes its first three-match winning streak in three years to Davidson for a SoCon match today at 1 p.m. UTC is 4-6; Davidson took a 3-7 record into a match Saturday evening at 35th-ranked Wake Forest. Mocs sophomore Jackson Tresnan has a team-high eight singles wins and is 5-0 at No. 4, where he likely will take on Davidson's Walker Lyons, 4-2 before Saturday. Also Saturday, Sewanee beat the Berry men 5-1 and Berry's women 5-0.

General

Jason Yaman, the Southern Conference assistant commissioner for media relations, will be the guest speaker for the Chattanooga Quarterback Club's noon luncheon meeting Monday at Finley Stadium, and the public is invited. Attendance costs $10 with a meal. Yaman, a Indiana graduate with a master's degree from Michigan, worked at Indiana State and Maryland before joining the SoCon staff in August 2008.